Question
What could the Canaanite woman do for/to Israel that the Lord eventually blessed her? What were the means of Israel that some of the gentile people approached? (Mat 15:21ff)
Response
The best way for me to answer this is to first off make sure that we have a basic understanding and appreciation for the primary means by which God designed for Israel to make a positive impact upon the nations of the earth. Then we will also simply take note of the fact that there were other things that God did later on in Israel’s history which also figured into the issue of them making a positive impact upon the Gentiles. And though there is certainly more that could be looked at, these two basic matters will provide for a fundamental understanding and appreciation for the general issue of how the Gentiles were dealt with in the “time past” portion of God’s program with Israel, and especially for the particular issue of the Canaanite woman situation in Matthew 15.
Briefly put, the primary means by which God designed for Israel to make a positive impact upon the nations is set forth in Deuteronomy chapter 4. As Israel prepared to enter their promised land and to establish themselves in it and to function in it as God’s nation, Moses declared to them:
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say. Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. (Deuteronomy 4:5-6)
Without going into any real detail, this is the issue of Israel’s designed positive impact upon the nations once they got established in their land and began functioning in it as per God’s design. By it God established Israel as ‘the light of the world’ and as ‘the salt of the earth’. And in functioning as such Israel was designed to not only appeal to those in the nations who were individually responding positively to the fundamental truth about the living and true God in contrast to the “lie” and idolatry of their nation, but she also was designed to provide for a further witness for God by which positive responding Gentiles could be further impacted and benefited.
So then once Israel was established and functioning in their land this was the primary means by which she positively impacted the nations and was the basis on which any positively responding Gentile would approach Israel. However, as the books of Judges and following relate, Israel failed to consistently function as she should and her designed impact upon the Gentiles was seriously compromised. But even though she failed to faithfully fulfill this function (and even produced a negative impact upon the nations that grew worse and worse as time went on). God Himself did certain things in Israel’s history from time to time that supplied for a positive impact upon the nations in spite of Israel’s rebelliousness and contrariness. In fact, at the time when Israel’s rebelliousness caused God to send the people out of the land and into the Assyrian/Babylonian captivity. God set in motion a series of things that not only supplied for a continuing positive impact upon the nations at that time and beyond, but He also did some special things that would even prime and/or prepare the nations as a whole for the time when He would directly deal with them as prophesied about in the final part of the climactic stage in His program with Israel.
Therefore, with God having designed for Israel to be ‘the light of the world’ and ‘the salt of the earth’ once they took possession of their land, this basic function (whether it was properly produced by Israel, or whether it was supplied for by God by other things in spite of their rebelliousness) was the fundamental thing to which positively responding Gentiles would respond and would then come to Israel.
Now regarding the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15, it was not that she ‘did anything for/to Israel’ that prompted the Lord to eventually deal with her. Rather it was the issue of her positive response both to the things that God had set in motion previously, and also to the things that were particularly in motion when Christ was here, that prompted the Lord to eventually deal with her as He did. In fact, by what she says to the Lord from the time that she first approached Him, and then by what she does and says in response to everything she experiences in her encounter with Him, she sets before the Lord a full and proper response to those aforementioned things that God had set in motion. And once again it is because she possessed a full and proper response to these things that the Lord eventually responded to her and so honored her with the healing of her daughter. This is why when the Lord does eventually deal with her, He prefaces what He says to her by saying, “O woman, great is thy faith”.
Therefore, what the Lord responded to and honored was not some work that she had done in the past, or some work that she then did. But instead He responded to and honored what she believed. And what she believed was not just one thing, but she understood and believed more than one thing that pertained to her as the Gentile that she was at this particular time in the outworking of God’s program with Israel.
Briefly and simply put, by what this woman of Canaan says when she first approaches the Lord, she gives evidence that in her past she has not only already responded positively to the truth of Israel’s God being the living and true God, but she has also responded positively to much more than that. She has evidently benefited from both the “light” and “salt” function in Israel. For she clearly also knows about, and has understood and believed, the Davidic Covenant. For this reason, when she appeals to Jesus for her daughter’s sake, she addresses Him as “O Lord, thou son of David.” However, as the account relates, the Lord did not respond to her even though she appealed to Him as such. He “answered her not a word” as it says. And neither would the disciples deal with her when she subsequently made her appeal to them. So then even though she was a positively responding Gentile, she did not merit being dealt with at this time on that simple basis. For just as the Lord said, and just as the disciples had been previously taught by Him, the time had not yet come in the climactic stage of Israel’s program for the Gentiles to be dealt with. Hence, as the Lord says. He Himself was not sent unto them, and neither had He instructed His disciples to go unto them, or even to think about going unto them, as of yet.
However, even though this was the situation that the Canaanite woman was in, she understood some other things about her Gentile status, as well as some other things about what God had provided for regarding the Gentiles in Israel’s program. And in view of this further understanding she returned to the Lord and set these other matters before Him. Wherefore, as verse 25 states, she then came to the Lord “and worshipped him, saying. Lord, help me.” And in so doing she appealed to Him on the basis of her dismal and grim Gentile status and state. Moreover, she made this appeal in accordance with a provision that God had made in connection with the Gentiles plight.
Now to this particular appeal the Lord does respond by actually speaking to her for the very first time, for her appeal was legitimate. And then by what He says to her in verse 26 the Lord probes the nature of her appeal, and by what He says He makes it so that she can manifest to Him whether her appeal is worthy of being honored at this particular time in Israel’s program.
When, therefore, she responds to the reality of what the Lord says by saying, “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table”, she testifies to the fact that her appeal is worthy of being honored. For her appeal is intelligently and faithfully based upon a particular provision and precedent that God had made and set in Israel’s program regarding impacting the Gentiles. So then when she said to the Lord, “yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” she did not come up with some sort of witty or snappy response. Neither did she deliver a ‘come back’ by which she brought to the Lord’s attention something that He had overlooked, which when He thought about it made Him see the fairness of what she pointed out, and that then made Him change His mind towards her. No, she did nothing of the kind. Instead she stated her clear understanding of a particular provision and precedent that God had established in Israel that made it so that the “dogs” were allowed to partake of some of the benefits that Israel received when those benefits either ‘spilled over’ unto them, so to speak, or when they befell to them as the result of carelessness or neglect on Israel’s part. Wherefore when this Canaanite woman expressed her understanding and appreciation for this issue, (and by so doing made it evident to the Lord that she was basing her appeal solely upon this), the Lord then says to her, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
Once again, the Lord responds to her because her “faith” is “great”. She truly did understand, appreciate, and believe much. And she believed it wholeheartedly, being fully persuaded both of its truthfulness in connection with her as a “dog” Gentile and of its appropriate application to her at that time in the beginning portion of the climactic stage in Israel’s program.
Now as I said at the beginning, this has been only a brief and simple consideration of both the general provision that God made in Israel’s program by which they would positively impact the Gentiles, and of the Canaanite woman’s situation in Matthew 15. Nevertheless, hopefully it is of some help to you.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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